Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life

Penguin Lives

by Marshall Frady

"a quick introduction to the life of a great American" -- The New York Times

An inspiring portrait of the incredible life and lasting influence of Dr. Martin Luther King

Marshall Frady, the reporter who became the unofficial chronicler of the civil rights movement, here re-creates the life and turbulent times of its inspirational leader. Deftly interweaving the story of King’s quest with a history of the African American struggle for equality, Frady offers fascinating insights into his subject’s magnetic character, with its mixture of piety and ambition. He explores the complexities of King’s relationships with other civil rights leaders, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover, who conducted a relentless vendetta against him. The result is a biography that conveys not just the facts of King’s life but the power of his legacy.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Biography Memoir, Social Justice, American History

216 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

A native of South Carolina, Marshall Frady was a journalist for more than twenty-five years, writing for Newsweek, Life, Harper's, Esquire, The New York Review of Books, The Sunday Times of London, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. He was a correspondent on Nightline; chief writer and host of ABC News' Closeup, for which he won two Emmys and the duPont-Columbia Award; and the author of six books.

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Luther King And Moral Struggle

In a short space, Marshall Frady has written an informative, inspiring and thoughtful biography of Martin Luther King Jr., of the nature of his achievement, of his America, and of his vision. The book does not engage in hero-worship or myth-making but rather presents King as a tortured. conflicted, and lonely individual. Frady writes at the close of his introduction (p.10) (itself a wonderful summation of the book and of King's achievement): "And what the full-bodied reality of King should finally tell us, beyond all the awe and celebration of him, is how mysteriously mixed, in what torturously complicated forms, our moral heroes -- our prophets --actually come to us."

The book emphasizes the ways in which King's moral vision and achievement emerged from moral conflict. King spent most of his career walking a difficult path between extremes. At the beginning of his career, he was criticized by the more conservative black establishment which preferred to use the courts rather than demonstrations as a means to promote racial equality. Indeed, Frady tells us, the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, which catapulted King into national prominence, did not end the segregation of the city's bus system -- a court decision did.

Towards the end of his career, black leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokely Charmichael pressured King to abandon his philosophy of nonviolence. He did not do so. But Frady shows us how King and Malcolm X near the end of their lives each learned something from the other.

King's most difficult moral struggle was with himself. Frady gives us a convincing picture of how King, whose appeal rested upon an ability to convey moral and religious principle, struggled (unsuccessfully) with sexuality. A myriad of affairs followed him and his mission from beginning to end. Frady has insightful things to say about the relationship between Dr. King's tortured, complex personal life and his public mission.

Frady also describes how near the end of his career with segregation on the decline in the South, King tried to expand his mission by opposing the war in Vietnam and by his "poor peoples campaign" which King saw as an attack on the materialism, impersonality, and greed that he found pervaded American life. In so expanding his mission, King alienated many of his followers. His lasting achievement does not rest upon these later activities, according to Frady, but rather upon the idealism and moral commitment with which he was able to infuse American life during a few short years.

Frady gives us an eloquent discussion of King's "I have a dream" speech in Washington D.C. Later in his career, King set forth his vision for America by speaking in terms of a "Beloved Community", a phrase adopted from the early 20th Century American philosopher, Josiah Royce. King said (p. 183) "When I talk about power and the need for power, I'm talking in terms of the need for power to bring about ... the creation of the Beloved Community." Our nation is still trying to recover something of King's idealism and of the best of his vision.

This book encourages us to think about and to formulate for ourselves the vision of America as a "Beloved Community" by reflecting on the life and achievement of a complex man.

Robin Friedman

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

At a little over 200 pages, Marshall Frady's Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life would seem to be the ideal MLK primer -- a trim introduction to the life and work of a man covered more expansively by Stephen B. Oates and Taylor Branch. The introduction, for one thing, is a beautiful read. Alas, Frady continues to bombard the reader with writerly flourishes for the duration of the book, which lends A Life a verbosity that makes it seem longer than it is. Lost, too, are many of the relevant details of the civil rights struggle that inspired King's words and actions, particularly in Frady's anaemic coverage of the Poor People's Campaign. Frady's book is still decent, doing a good job of tracing King's increasingly revolutionary bent towards the end of his life, but you'd be better advised going with Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King Jr. if you want a solid biography of King. And if you want a more expansive look at the civil rights era, Branch's Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 , Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 and At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 remains the essential trilogy.

[Tori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a pretty good idea that with this review I'm going to step on peoples toes. So, be forewarned. You see, there really wasn't much I cared for. I don't like the author's writing style, I don't like the way he brushed over some really scarring things, and I really don't care for Martin Luther King, Jr. himself. Therefore, I'll probably disagree with many who read this.
Well, now that that is out of the way, let's get into the why and how of the book Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life by Marshall Frady, and why I took the precautions of putting a disclaimer in my introduction.
My main problem with the book was that I learned several things I really didn't need or want to know. For one, the author has a very expansive vocabulary that bogs readers down when he uses it. He also has nothing against quoting cuss words in his book. And while I like description, I really don't need to know extreme details about minor characters, information he seemed overeager to share.
Even with all this detail, or perhaps because of all this wordy detail, there were times that the time line for me was blurred and I wasn't sure when things were happening, or just what was happening at all. I found that it was a little too easy to zone out, because very little drew you into it in the first place.
Another thing that annoyed me was how quickly the author painted everyone against King in a terrible light. No doubt there was a lot of people who wished him and his movements gone, but I'm also sure that not every white person was so oppressive and mean. And that maybe perhaps, with King's last movement where he was trying to take our country from capitalism to socialism, it wasn't necessarily that there was no "will or capacity of electoral government for that struggle [of changing]" but perhaps they realized that socialism wasn't good! I thought he was greatly jumping to conclusions in that instance.
The book clearly shows that Martin Luther King, Jr. was not perfect. No surprise there. However, I felt the author brushed over the gravity of some of the things which King did, and even possibly justified some of his actions occasionally. From what I can ascertain reading his work, Marshall Frady, while understanding that King wasn't perfect, thinks of him as a man who did a lot of good with his life and was a great man.
I both agree and disagree. No doubt good things came of King's movement. However, I found it so muddled with not so good things that took him very low in my esteem, and would never be able to make it to "hero" status with me. I know that no one is perfect and every hero has flaws, but I also believe that we can rise above the sinful lusts of this world, and I don't think King even tried; being both a plagiarizer and an adulterer for his entire life.
So all that is why I give Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life a rather mediocre review. I do applaud Marshall Frady for pointing out some hard truths, even if I felt their importance was lessoned. He too took a risk at stepping on some toes, and though I didn't agree with him on quite a few of his subjects, I did learn a little about King. But, due to the harsh language, the vilification of everyone, and the brushing over of King's deep sins, I don't believe I would recommend it.

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ralph Bunche. Albert John Luthuli. Desmond Tutu. Nelson Mandela. Kofi Annan. Wangari Maathai. Barack Obama. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., they are among the black Nobel Laureates for Peace.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was an American Baptist minister that led the African American Civil Right movement. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia where his mother used to tell him Martin, you are as good as any child in Atlanta. These words made the boy Martin dreamed high despite being born black. In this biography, he made references for the people who he got his inspiration from: Jesus Christ (his mother was a devout Christian), Gandhi (for his non-violence), Thoreau (for his effective civil disobedience) and Abraham Lincoln (for his earlier contribution on racial equality).

If I am not mistaken, this is my first autobiography book. Having read Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: A Journey and Randy Taraborreli's Music and Madness: The Michael Jackson Story I think I prefer biographies. Because the book was written by the person himself and maybe because Rev. King was more of a speaker rather than writer, everything written here seems to be positive and mostly just stating the obvious. Then half of the book is mostly excerpts of his speeches. I was amazed reading the texts of his 1963 Washington famous speech, I Have a Dream so I even went to YouTube to watch and hear it for myself. There is nothing like hearing his bombastic and forceful voice compared to just reading the book.

For me, being an Asian in a Third World country, the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. is his inspiration to believe that it is possible to achieve racial equality in every nation. This is easily said than done and may take forever on a global scope. However, if each country has a Martin Luther King, Jr., little wins can accumulate and will result to bigger wins later as shown by one Peace activist (like Gandhi) inspiring King. Then one black Nobel Peace prize laureate like King inspiring another like Nelson Mandela.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to read this book because I admittedly don't know much about Martin Luther King, Jr, and I decided that now that I'm middle aged, it's high time I learn something about such an influential man. And so, this book.

Marshall Frady did a good job at capturing the highlights AND lowlights of King's short life, and I learned a lot. One thing that annoyed me about the book, however, was the fact that Frady has an enormous vocabulary and doesn't hesitate to employ it in his writing. I can't imagine how your average reader would understand half the words he uses. I have three English and writing degrees, and I found words I'd never heard of or knew what they meant. It was unnecessary and I felt like Frady was showing off, perhaps because he's a narcissist, I don't know. It was frustrating.

I learned that Martin was born Mike and that he got his Ph.D. at Boston University. I learned his father was an Atlanta preacher, and that King later served at the same church, after he had been at a church in Alabama. I learned about the marches, the details of non-violent demonstrations, the arrests and jailings. I also learned an awful lot about the beatings the non-violent black marchers took, sometimes lethally. It was truly horrifying to read about, and to think that this happened right before I was born was quite shocking. These people endured a lot, a whole lot more than I had realized. I mean, people were freakin' KILLED by white supremacists! Maybe I should have known that, but I didn't. It was appalling.

I learned about highlights like Montgomery, Selma, the DC speech, and others. I also learned things I wish I hadn't been exposed to. For instance, King was a major horn-dog! I mean, on his last night on earth, he had intimate encounters with two separate women back to back and had to turn a third away early in the morning. He had no control over his enormous sexual appetites, and that was disappointing. He was also vulgar, and smoked and drank secretly. All heroes have flaws, and he was human after all, but it was still disappointing to learn these things. I also didn't realize how many failures King had, how he was oftentimes given the shaft by both white and black society. After essentially winning the civil rights battle, he turned his attention to creating the Poor People's Campaign, which was essentially about his goal of turning America into a socialist country. People fled from him like crazy when he started working on that. I didn't know. I also didn't know about the virtually dialectical relationship he had with Malcolm X, nor had I realized what a large role Jesse Jackson played in his later campaigns. It was disappointing to read about how a man who had done so much for the black community through non-violence was largely discounted when the Black Power movement started, how he was thrown by the wayside.

I can't give this book five stars because of the author's irritating style of using a dictionary to write the damn book, but I think it's worth four stars because you learn a great deal about King, warts and all, and I think it ultimately gives one a greater appreciation for what he did for black people and the country as a whole.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

MLK is a fascinating man and it's important to understand what he did, why he did it, and what it lead to, but this author... He needed a firm editor to cut out all the fluff. His writing style is incomprehensible at times to the point that I just don't want to continue. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday but for now I'd rather read other sources.

[Jeremy Perron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of those Americans like Ben Franklin, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and FDR, who, to me, were far too perfect to be interesting. When we learn about these people in grade school, we are taught about how awesome and nice they were to the point they become rather dull. When I got older and I started to read more about these people, I discovered their true greatness. King was probably the greatest American never to hold public office, yet, had had an effect on this country similar to that of Franklin Roosevelt or John Marshall. Unfortunately, like many great leaders of our past, King's legacy now clouds the image of who the man was. When I read King's Autobiography, I felt I had come to a greater understanding of him as a person and his perspective on himself. Reading Marshall Frady's Martin Luther King: A Life has given me more of a clear image of who the man was and times that he lived. Frady's King is a man who, like all men, is flawed human being. Here he is presented as Oliver Cromwell once said 'with warts in all'. But even the 'sins' of Martin Luther King are very minor when compared to other American icons, and King clearly paid for them more then he should have in his war with J. Eager Hoover. The United States of America today is a very different place then it has been because King was a major player in his era.

For me, the highlight of this book is the struggle between King and Hoover. One of things America has learned since the sixties and seventies have become more history then memory for an entire generation of people, was the war between the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and Director of the FBI.

J. Edger Hoover was a legend in the United States in the area of crime fighting. In 1924, Hoover was appointed Director of the Bureau of Investigation, which was the predecessor of the FBI, and he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935. He would still be the Director when he died in 1972. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency and with instituting a number of modern innovations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. Hoover's efforts had put a huge dent into organized crime operations during his tenure. If he had stuck to actual criminals, his legacy would be untouchable as some of his legendary G-Men were. However, convinced through very little evidence-and much more racism and paranoia-that Civil Rights organizations were communist plots against the government and he would have to stop them. He would go out of his way to wage an irrational campaign against them.

"While King still had no inkling of it, there had in fact commenced what was to become a prolonged shadow war between him and Hoover. Though it would take place mostly out of the public eye, the two of them were to be looked into an elemental conflict as figures reflecting--more, virtually embodying--two poles of the American character: that ethic lasting Plymouth's starch-collared society of probity, discipline, righteousness as a matter of a ruthless cleanliness of behavior, this rectitudinousness in schizophrenic tension with an unrulier urge lasting from the frontier, a restlessness with authority and convention, a readiness for adventure in exploring the farther, windy moral opens of life. Since assuming power as director of the FBI in 1924, Hoover had not appreciably changed his notion of what should be the character of the nation--sedate, sober, orderly, and properly segregated, like his FBI--and he had ever since applied all the energies of the institution he had created to keeping it that way, to preserve the plainer America of his nostalgias against alien contamination and the subversions of more diverse cultural weathers. By the fifties, he had become for much of the country--this stubby, pluggish, stern little pug-bull of a man with a cauliflower pallor and flat, blunt face--a kind of totem figure of law and uprightness. In the process, he had consolidated the FBI into perhaps Washington's greatest private preserve of official power ever, his intelligence files holding even many in the halls of government in fear." p.81-2

The book also discuss the famous March on Washington in 1963. It discusses the event, the organizers, its purpose, and even some of the people who did not want it to proceed, including President Kennedy. Kennedy sometimes gets criticized for this but that is with hindsight being twenty/twenty. It is a great testament to those marched that day that not one act of violence occurred. Had there been a riot, it might have been a huge set-back for the movement. Fortunately the march was completely peaceful.

"The mass pilgrimage into Washington had been entrepreneured by movement patriarch A. Philip Randolph, in concert with other leaders like King, and despite his crankiness about the SCLC's ascendancy after Birmingham, Roy Wilkins, to demonstrate the expanse and spirit of the movement with a colossal rally to appeal to Congress for passage of the public accommodations bill presented by Kennedy. The president himself, however, was more than a little edgy about it all, trying to dissuade the march's organizers with warnings, in a conversation with them beforehand, that thousands of demonstrators converging into the capital could be seen by Congress as an attempt at mob intimidation, resulting in their all losing the legislation he'd introduced, many on the Hill already looking for a pretext anyway to avoid supporting it. King offered the observation he had put to Birmingham's ministers: 'Frankly, I have never engaged in any direct-action movement which did not seem ill-timed. Some people thought Birmingham ill-timed.' To which the president rejoined, with a small smile, 'Including the Attorney General.'" p.121-2

There is a focus on King and his main competitor of ideas in the African-American community, Malcolm X. Frady discusses how King and Malcolm came from two very different walks of life.

"They were, King and Malcolm, really projections of two entirely different cultures. King's was a ministry congenial to his mostly churchly, respectably middle-class black constituency, eager to join in a coalition of purpose with the nation's white liberal establishment. But Malcolm was a prophet of another America, having arisen out of a childhood of cold miser that could not have been more unlike King's snugly privileged upbringing, and the vicious and gaudy hustler society of the black underclass in those mammoth ghettos of the North's 'great cities of destruction,' in E. Franklin Frazer's phrase. Such inner exiles lived without any sense of connection to the rest of the country, bereft of that sense of their individual worth without which 'they cannot live,' as James Baldwin wrote during the time, and 'they will do anything whatever to regain it. That is why the most dangerous creation of any society is that man who has nothing to lose.'" p.129

As time went on a new battles emerged, King would go on and face new challenges as younger and more militant generation were rejecting his message of love for a Black Nationalist ideology that he was completely repulsed by.

"Yet King was to cast himself against all this anyway. He may have arrived with Birmingham and Selma at his apotheosis as the Mosaic figure leading his people out of the old Egypt of their bondage in the South, but with this grander aspiration 'to confront the power structure massively' on a national scale, he was entering full into his tragic arch."p.169

There is also discussion of his last uncompleted mission in which he was going to challenge the great economic forces of our nation, a mission that he would be slain before he could truly begin.

"Thus, in the summer of 1967, King announced what would be the most expansively radical adventure of his life: a national movement called the Poor People's Campaign. It would mobilize into one wide popular front not only blacks but all the country's disregarded and outcast--poor whites, Hispanics, Native Americans--in a great Gandhian crusade that would challenge the nation's entire custodial complex, not just its corporate citadels but its central institutions of government, to free the destitute of America from their generational ghettos of hopelessness." p.194

I highly recommend this work it is a great and fascinating look into one of the greatest leaders of any age. This book captures the highs, lows, battles one and battles lost in a career that challenged and changed a nation, the American Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like that of most famous men, Martin Luther King Jr.'s life is one largely remembered as a series of events: the Montgomery bus boycott, the Birmingham marches, his "I Have a Dream" speech, his march in Selma, and his assassination in Memphis. While this list includes its most triumphal moments, it does little to cover the full range of his activities or the private life he lived. This is what Marshall Frady provides in this brief book. In a little more than 200 pages, he conveys the span of King's tragically short life, from his Atlanta boyhood through his early ministry to the activism that made him famous and helped to transform the nation. Though the familiar highlights are there, he adds to the reader's understanding elements that King's achievements have overshadowed, such as his failed campaign in the Georgia town of Albany, or the brutal resistance his efforts faced in St. Augustine, Florida. Their inclusion certainly qualifies the scope of what Kind accomplished, but it also helps readers to better understand the size of the challenge King and other protestors faced in challenging Jim Crow segregation.

Frady adds little that is new to the story of King's life, yet his analysis is informed by his personal experiences covering King as a young reporter in the 1960s. His account of the St. Augustine protests is a particular highlight of his book for that reason, as he recounts the events he covered there with his firsthand observations of the events he chronicles. These he uses to inform his portrait of a fatalistic, sometimes depressed figure, one who felt fully the burden of expectations and embarked upon his many campaigns with the expectation that he would die as a result. That loss stalks its pages may reflect an excessive degree of hindsight on Frady's part, but it helps to underscore the risks King took throughout his life and the loss we all suffered with his assassination barely a dozen years after he first emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement. For anyone seeking an accessible introduction to that life and an overview of what he achieved in it, Frady's book is a good place to start.

[Shantell Cuenca]

“A Life of martin luther king jr” because it shows and tells the life of martin luther king jr. This book is amazing to young readers if they want to learn about martin's life. He is a very inspiring man and leader. He changes all of our lives because if it weren't for him we would all be separated but because he did what he did we are all together as one and king, not mean. He once said that he had a dream which was for all black and white to come together because back then everybody was seperated. He accomplished and inspired many people, that is why i chose martin luther king jr's life to read because i wanted to learn more about him and now i do.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good starter biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As other reviewers point out, the writing is florid, occasionally to where it seems that the author loses the thread. Still, King's misses (Albany, St. Augustine, Chicago) are chronicled along with his better-known success stories, and his long held sense of doom comes across to the reader as something real.

[Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic introduction to the key aspects of King's life, in a tight, compact narrative. Frady's writing is rich and eloquent and he presents all of the crucial elements - like the relationships between King and Malcolm X, SNCC, the Black Panther Party - as well as King's critical shift against the US war in Vietnam.

[Haifa Busamra · Rating 3 out of 5]

رسالة مارتن لوثر كينج الابن وكفاحه في مسيرة حياته القصيرة لأجل نيل حق المساواة والعدل والعيش بسلام يرتبط فيه الجميع بروابط الأخوة دون تمييز لعرق أو لون، ما هي إلا صورة مصغرة لما أراده الله للبشر يوم اختارهم لخلافته على هذه الأرض، وشرع لهم عبر الرسالات التي حملها إليهم أنبياؤه ورسله كيفية تحقيق هذا التعايش وفق منظومة ربانية يعلم مشرعها احتياجات خلقه بأدق تفاصيلها، فاختار المنحرفون عن فطرتهم والراغبون في السلطة والتمييز، العنف والاضطهاد لسيادة العالم وفق أهواءهم وفكرهم الضال.
العجيب أن كل من في العالم يرغب بالسلام، ولكنهم في ذات الوقت يزعزعونه باتباع أوامر فئة نصبت نفسها لتكون فوق الهرم. لأجل هذه الفئة المستغلة، تعاني معظم شعوب العالم حروبا ودمارا وعنصرية واستغلالا ونبذا وقتلا وهدما.... ولأجل وأد هذا الانحراف، تحتاج هذه الأمة كما ذكر المؤلف "إلى شخص له صفات نبي يستطيع مساعدتها على الرؤية عبر الدخان المتخلف عن البارود والقنابل" ليخرجها مما هي فيه بتطبيق سنة الله في خلقه. عندها فقط ستنعم البشرية بالسلام.
أكثر ما أعجبني في الكتاب تسليط الكاتب على الحالة النفسية لمارتن لوثر في مسيرة كفاحه؛ خوفه، شعوره بتورطه في قبول قيادة القضية، عجزه، هاجس لوم النفس عند الشعور بالذنب... كل ذلك، عكس بشريته أمام رمزية الشخصية التي كان يمثلها علنا أمام شعبه، وفي باطنه قلق يأكله من أن تهتز صورته إذا ما افتضحت بعض أفعاله. ولهذا، مع كل ما فعل مارتن لوثر، لم يرقى أبدا من وجهة نظري لدرجة نبي. فالأنبياء منزهون من الوقوع في الرذيلة ولا يفعلون الفحشاء ثم يسندونها لأجل الرب. فالله لا يأمر بالفحشاء ولا ينبغي لنا أن نقول عليه ما لا نعلم.

[Mike Cornish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because, like most people, I had a fairly symbolic understanding of who MLK was. I knew a couple highlights of his civil rights work, I knew he was revered by many, and I knew he had some controversies. But I couldn't expound on any of those points much beyond a few sentences.

I would recommend this book to anyone in a similar position. This book does an effective job of presenting MLK as a complete person: His virtues, his wins, his flaws, and his failures. It does much to dispel the mythos around the man, which I believe goes a long way toward making MLK's history more relatable and less susceptible to being used dishonestly.

There's a decent amount of flowery language used throughout the book, which forced me to regularly look up the meaning of words, but it's far from unbearable. I appreciate the overall format of the narrative and the strategic use of quotes. I don't know enough about MLK to have any opinion on the book's accuracy.

I greatly enjoyed the read and feel I am better for having read it. What more could you want?

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the flowery, vivid language of Frady, a veteran southern journalist (who covered King for Newsweek in the mid-'60s), this story tells the rise of King's popularity and leadership and his fight to maintain it despite a popular sway towards the movements of Malcolm X, Black Power and violent retaliation. It is told in a non-linear style, rarely referring to dates, often glimpsing back into King's past or foreshadowing into his future. Frady's language seems to echo the sweeping drama of King's own pastoral speaking style and the capture the mounting excitement surrounding the Civil Rights Movement.
A typical sample sentence of Frady's writing: "At the least, it left one with the suspicion of how ephemeral, after all, might be the old human furies of intransigence and irreconcilability." [on the assassination attempt against Alabama Governor George Wallace]

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book and it's representation of Dr. Martin Luther King a lot. The book gave a honest analysis of Martin Luther King and his life, presenting him as a civil rights leader but also as a human being with faults. Many of the books try to cover up his personal life and trials he endured as if he were perfect, this book examines his life without the rose colored glasses but without demeaning his legacy IMO. In the end you will have a more honest yet respected view of him.

[The1likenevl]

Borrowed this book from a library where I use to live but moved before I had a chance to get into it, will buy it & finish it off soon. MLK was the Godfather & architect of change not just for black people but for every race that suffered racism & segregation. It's a shame we've learnt nothing from his struggle & vision...

[Abrar Touq · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually enjoy reading biographies, but this book was an exception. I liked that the author was honest and tried to show the good and the bad side of MLK, and even though he made some mistakes no one can deny his devoted work towards freeing the african americans and giving them their rights and making everyone walk on this earth as brothers and sisters despite their skin color.

[SundaytoSaturday .com · Rating 3 out of 5]

SUMMARY: The duplicity of human nature is a conundrum. We are capable of extraordinary acts of greatness and kindness, while at the same time, we are capable of profound evil and harm. This is true of all humans; even those whose lives lead to monumental positive societal change such as Martin Luther King Jr. Marshall Fraday's Martin Luther King Jr.: A Life paints Martin as a fellow human being trying to find his place in the world. Is he doing the right thing? Is he the right leader for the movement? Is it time to give up? Does he change tactics? King deals with depression, failure, lust, success, and elation. Pride and humility, doubt and fear war within him as he hashes out his vision for the civil rights movement.

"A benignly nebulous amnesia has settled over how in fact tenuous, fitful, and uncertain was his progress through those years from Montgomery to Memphis, and the final, truly revolutionary implications of his message," Frady writes.

Over the years we have neutered the complicated human nature of King. Frady calls this the "pop beatification" of Martin that is commemorated with "parades, memorial concerts, schools and streets and parks named for him, his birthday a national holiday, his image on postage stamps."

"To hallow a figure is almost always to hollow him. And the truth is, King was always a far more excruciatingly complex soul than the subsequent flattenings effected by his mass sanctification," Frady pens.

One of the strengths of this book is its attention to detail. Frady has done extensive research, and his writing is rich with historical context and fascinating anecdotes. He does an excellent job of exploring King's life from his early days as a Baptist minister in the South, to his rise as a civil rights leader, and ultimately, to his untimely death. The author provides a nuanced and balanced view of King, acknowledging both his strengths and weaknesses, and avoiding the trap of hagiography that so often plagues biographical works.

One of the recurring themes is King's struggle with guilt. Guilt from imploring people to march and then getting beaten, imprisoned, and/or killed. Guilt from preaching from the pulpit with moral clarity, but having many extramarital relationships. The book is a stark reminder that even those that rise to greatness in history are still prone to the trite temptations of life.

From a Christian standpoint, it brings to mind Romans 7:15 where Paul says, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

The author draws on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, including King's own writings and speeches, to paint a vivid picture of his life and legacy. Many of the events such as the bus boycott in Montgomery and the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma will be familiar. Frady is skilled at keeping the story moving although, much like King's speeches, there is sometimes an affinity for esoteric words that sometimes, although inspiring, can bog the reading down.

Overall, Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life is an insightful and short introduction to the life and legacy of one of the most influential figures in modern American history and is recommended as an entry-level book into King's life.

KEY QUOTE: "What the full-bodied reality of King should finally tell us, beyond all the awe and celebration of him, is how mysteriously mixed, in what torturously complicated forms, our moral heroes--our prophets--actually come to us."

MORE: Visit SundaytoSaturday.com where we curate topics for a disillusioned church.

[Unto Nordling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography answered many questions but also raised some too. Martin Luther King, Jr is famous of the thing he was exceptionally good at: he's speech, I have a dream. I think Frady really nails it when he paints a picture of King merely as a very good speaker and thinker, less as an man of action. Although I really wasn't a fan of Frady's tone as a writer, but as I kept on reading, I kinda grew used to it. I think the main reason of my dislike was because his tone is quite an old fashioned-sounding. But, yeah, you'll get used to it. Frady's not a bad writer.

I liked how this biography also points out how King was just a human being. It's more inspirational to read about people who have flaws, fears, who make mistakes, but who still are competent to do what they find is right, fight for the better world. I think this is the thing that really divides people. If you don't want to read how MLK,Jr made mistakes and wasn't really monogamous, sometimes drank a lot, maybe you should look for some other book. But for the person who looks for something inspirational, this is a good book to read. The story of MLK, Jr teaches us how important it is to live your life fullest, think of others and be brave. You can overcome your fears. King had this anxiety, all the time; he was sure he's going to die soon. He was monitored By the FBI and Hoover really didn't like him. Still he got stuff done. A lot. He got over his fears because he felt that he had to do something for other people. That is inspirational.

I wish Frady would have done some research what kind of person King was to those nearest him. It may be difficult or impossible, but still. It would have been interesting. There are some sentences in the biography that hint that King may have suffered of depression too, but hey, who wouldn't on that time and that kind of surroundings. Being an african american wasn't easy back then and now I really get all the anger some people have towards the white middle class. Imagine, if these days you would be arrested because you didn't give up your seat or would be not let in to a restaurant because of your skin color.

The end includes some discussion of the death of King being good for his image. That is what I really don't agree with because we cannot never know what would have happened if King had lived longer. He didn't have it easy anyway in any step in his road to one of most significant human rights activists of his time. I think justifying his murder is some of big flaws in this biography.

Still, I think that Frady has done good work with descriping Kings life. Agree? Disagree? Tell me what you think :)

[ALLA BASIM · Rating 5 out of 5]

سيرة حياة المناضل الحقوقي مارتن لوثر كينغ، كان فيها الكاتب مارشال فرادي موفقا أيما توفيق، ذكر فيها سيرة مختصرة لحياة الرجل بكل انتصاراته وهزائمه بكل سموه وانحطاطه بكل مميزاته وعيوبه، وأدرج بين السطور تحليلاته العقلانية للسيء والجيد على حد السواء.. وهذا كما أشرت في غير ما مراجعة ميزة كتابة السيرة في الحضارة الغربية بعكس كتابة السيرة في عالمنا العربي حيث يكثر التمجيد اللامعقول والتبرير الساذج لكل الأفعال ومحاولة ستر العيوب بصورة مقززة..
إن سيرة المناضل الحقوقي مارتن لوثر كينغ في صراعه ضد مظاهر التفرقة العنصرية بالمجتمع الأمريكي لا زالت منبعا للإلهام لكل المناضلين حول العالم اليوم، بكل مقاتلي الحرية، وكل ناشدي العدالة الإجتماعية، كل محاربي الطغيان.. إن كلماته التي صدح بها يوما في سماء مونتغمري ومزارع الباني وسجون بيرمنغهام لا زالت حية لأنه رواها بدمه وعرقه جنبا إلى جنب مع إخوانه السود والبيض المؤمنين بأن البشر ولدوا أحرارا متساوين في الحقوق والواجبات ضمن أطرهم المجتمعية...
يجدر بنا هنا أن نشير إلى أن مبدأ الدفاع والمقاومة السلمية اللاعنفية تعتبر غريبة عن العقلية العربية والإسلامية لإختلاف الثقافة والوضع والظروف المحيطة أيضا،. وربما أجنح في قرارة نفسي لإعتبار أسلوب مالكولم إكس ممثل جبهة مواجهة العنف بالعنف هي الإسلوب الأمثل... لكن لاشك أن نقد أسلوب عمل معين لا يتأتى بدون فهم الظروف المحيطة فهما دقيقة، كما أن العمل المرحلي قد يتطلب بعض التغيير في التكتيكات... لقد كان مارتن لوثر كينغ رجلا عظيما بكل المقاييس وحاول بكل جهده أن يزيل نظام التفرقة العنصرية ولولاه لكان الوضع في أمريكا اليوم أسوء.. لكن في المقابل حينما نضج فكريا وسياسيا واتجه لمحاولة خلق ثورة جديدة ضد النظام الأمريكي القائم ببناه الإقتصادية والسياسية فشل وتم اغتياله في نهاية حياته.. لأن من ساندوه من البيض في باديء الأمر لم يرو في حركته ومطالبه المتكررة خطرا داهما على بنى النظام لكنه حينما التقى في أواخر عمره نوعا ما مع أهداف مالكولم اكس تمت تصفيته بدم بارد كما فعل بمالكولم نفسه.. إن الفرق بين مالكولم إكس و مارتن لوثر كينغ هو أن الأول ثوري والثاني مناضل حقوقي يتعامل بسياسة الأمر الواقع ويحاول أن يصلح النظام من داخله..
لشد ما أثرت فيا رسالته من سجن بيرمنغهام.. فهي لعمري درة خطاباته ومحاضراته وحق نشرها وتوزيعها على كل حر..
إن مذاهب المقاومة في الأرض كلها لابد أن يكون فيها شيئا من مالكولم إكس، والكثير من مارتن لوثر كينغ حتى تنجح..
انصح قاريء الكتاب ألا يكتفى بقراءته وأن يخلله بحضور محاضراته ولقاءاته ويربط بين الصورة والكلمة فهذا سيحقق النتيجة المرجوة..
غفر الله لمارتن لوثر كينغ فإنه كان أمة وحده...

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly short biography of King, and being the first bio I’ve read of MLK, I was left wondering if I should have started with another book. Firstly, as a shorter book, it is not exhaustive. It covers most of the key events in King’s life, but not as in depth as another volume might. Secondly, it presents a picture of King that in some ways is not terribly flattering, I recognize that with a larger-than-life figure like King that a legend can grow around him that can make him less than human and put him up on a lofty pedestal. But Frady presents King’s career as a series of disappointing failures interspersed with moments of grand success. Perhaps this is closer to the truth, but it results in a downplaying of some of the successes. Frady also is not shy about delving into King’s alleged womanizing, almost painting a picture of a lonely sex addict. Third, the book presents a little more analysis by the author than I am used to in a biography. Stylistically, Frady writes himself into the narrative as a reporter who followed King, again more than I am used to reading. His style also, at times, requires the need to have a thesaurus ready at hand. Having said all that, the book does provide a decent overview of King’s career, and paints a vivid picture of the incredible challenges he faced in taking on the mantle of leadership of the civil rights movement. It also shows King in all his paradoxes and tensions, which can be a good thing in a biography. But it always leaves me wondering if the degree to which these are included in a bio reflect the reality of the subject’s life or the biases of the biographer. More than anything this book served to give me an appetite to read a more definitive King biography.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished the biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. that I first encountered in Professor Broussard's seminar at Texas A&M University and which I plan on assigning my students at Franklin Pierce University next semester. Marshall Frady met several civil rights activists during his job as a Newsweek reporter during the 1960s. On the strength of this background, he wrote a concise biography of Dr. King shortly before his own passing in 2004. I wish he had spent more time detailing King's early life, as the book progresses from his birth to the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 in just 30 pages. Yet I believe Frady successfully captured King's life by presenting him not as an icon, but as a fallible human being who went through enormous challenges: setbacks in the civil rights movement, criticism from those who resisted his strategy of nonviolence, surveillance from an FBI Director who loathed him, and fear for his life. Despite these challenges, Frady also reminds us of the legacy of King's work: "To anyone newly looking around the South some fifteen years later, it would seem a whole century had passed. The integration of its public life had become not only pervasive but commonplace."

[Sarah El Massaoudi]

WHAT A LIFE HE LIVED. WHAT A FIGHT HE FOUGHT.

READING A BIOGRAPHY ON SOMEONE WHO IS 'LARGER THAN LIFE' ALWAYS LEAVES ME FEELING OVERWHELMED.

OF COURSE, I KNOW THE POPULAR IMAGES, THE SPEECHES, THE AMAZING ONE-LINERS BUT UNTIL I'VE READ AT LEAST ONE BIO. I DON'T KNOW THE PERSON.. THEIR COMPLEXITIES. THEIR PSYCHOLOGY.
THEIR BURDEN.... THE THINGS THAT MAKE THEM MORE HUMAN THAN 'ICON' BUT AT THE SAME TIME PARADOXICALLY EVEN MORE ICONIC. IT'S SO INTENSE, SO INTIMATE.

I ENJOYED THE PROGRESS MLK MADE. TOWARDS A MORE RADICAL APPROACH, WHILE STILL BELIEVING IN HIS MESSAGE OF NON-VIOLENCE. IT'S TRULY INSPIRING.

IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS BOOK REVEALED SOME DETAILS ON MLK'S PRIVATE LIFE WHICH WERE - IF TRUE - UNSETTLING TO READ. BUT I DO NOT THINK THAT LEADERS ARE PERFECT, FAULTLESS BEINGS, AND I CAN RECOGNIZE THEIR EFFORTS AND STRUGGLE WHILE ALSO REALIZING THAT ANY MOVEMENT IS BIGGER THAN A PERSON.

ABOUT THE BOOK. I FOUND IT HARD TO READ BECAUSE THE LANGUAGE WAS UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT, NOT ONLY IN WORDING BUT ALSO IN PHRASING WHICH TOOK AWAY A LOT OF THE READING ENJOYMENT FOR ME. BECAUSE OF THAT I WOULDN'T NECESSARILY RECOMMEND IT AND I'VE HEARD THERE ARE BETTER BIOGRAPHIES ON MLK OUT THERE SO I'M PLANNING ON TRYING ANOTHER ONE SOON.

[Jinan · Rating 3 out of 5]

To start off, reading about the in depth story of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and the strong love he had even for his oppressors, made me realize how much black people have suffered and fought to get their rights, His story should be told generations ahead and his name never forgotten not just among the black folks but also around the world, a man who never was violent even with those who sought to kill him.

what made me put 3 stars to this book was not the content itself but the writing style of this book which I found very annoying, using strong complicated words even when unnecessary (im not saying not to use hard vocab, im just saying the story could be communicated much effectively, or maybe it's just bc English is my 3rd language wtv) and also the excessive use of quotations really irritated me the whole time, there has been definitely times where it could've been less but still used them in almost every sentence. Also what I disliked was the storytelling itself, which all felt very monotonic when I, in my opinion think it should have been written a little more with passion.
nonetheless, my yapping concluded and so I wrap this up by saying hats off to the author for gathering much info about this incredible man's life.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book surprised me. I picked it up in honor of MLK Day, wanting to learn more about the man we honor every year for his great courage in standing up for what he believed in. Martin Luther King was a great man who changed the course of American history for the better, and I wanted to learn from his example and study more what he preached.

This book discussed MLK's teachings, but to my surprise, it also revealed a man ravaged by guilt and secret sin. Martin Luther King was far from a perfect man. It tells the truth about one of America's great heroes by illustrating in detail his vision and how he developed into the mythical figure he is today, but it did not sugarcoat his flaws. It forced me to reconcile the man society places on a pedestal with the truth about what he did in secret. The lesson is clear: it is important for us to evaluate people holistically. Do Martin Luther King's sins sully his legacy? No, they do not. He was able to achieve tremendous bounds for racial equality and social good that have affected millions of lives for the better. We have to remember that our heroes are never perfect, but we choose to honor their voices anyway.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an OK, relatively high level summary of King's life. It doesn't have a lot of depth, but that's fine. I think the main criticism I have of this book is that the author writes like he swallowed a thesaurus -- as though he needs to maintain a high lyrical tone to match MLK's own rhetoric. But it's just distracting and doesn't add anything.

The most interesting part of the book is that the author seems to regard King as essentially failing in his mission, and that his reputation was saved from inevitable twilight by his untimely death. I don't know enough to agree or disagree, though the final chapters on Vietnam and the Poor People's Campaign indicate to me that MLK was a figure ahead of his time, and I wonder if the struggles his campaigns were enduring at the time of his death would have continued as sentiment turned against Vietnam. MLK might have been the acceptable, anti-war, democratic socialist figure that mitigated some of the hard swing towards the Reagan 80s... Still, it left me feeling pretty down, as the takeaway is fundamentally that the faceless institutional structures of the status quo are more recalcitrant than the racism of the old south.

[رزان .. · Rating 4 out of 5]

ربما كانت حفيظة البعض على تضمين الكاتب للجانب السلبي لسيرة كينغ . لكن أرى أن هذا حافظ على الواقعية فمارشال لم يصور كينغ كشخصية بطولية خارقة إنما إنسان رأى الظلم فسعى

بدأ الكتاب بنبذة عن كينغ الأب وحياة كينغ الابن ورؤاه وخيارات طموحه ليستقر على ما أراد أبوه كخيار شخصي وليس انصياعا ثم ليستقر به الأمر في مدينة مونتغمري بولاية ألابما حيث تنشأ أولى نشاطات حركته الذي وجد نفسه في جبهتها ومتزعما لها
لتسفر المطالبك الأولى في صالح الحركة حيث يصدر القرار بمنع الفصل العنصري في الحافلات
المطالبات التالية لم تسفر بتحقيق مطالب السود بإلغاء الفصل العنصري بالمرافق العامة
لكن من كان يتصور أن الحافلات تعبر للكونجرس ليكون للسود حق التصويت في ستينات القرن العشرين ويترأس أمريكا شخص أسود البشرة في القرن الواحد والعشرين
وتبقى كلمة مارتن لوثر كينغ : لدي حلم ، حلما متحققا
ويبقى كما وصف نفسه عند العرض عليه ليكون مرشح السلام للرئاسة " لقد توصلت الى التفكير في دوري كشخص يعمل خارج إطار السياسة الحزبية .. كضمير لجميع الأحزاب وجميع الناس"
ألحقت خطاباته كملحق للكتاب.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this book a few years ago when I decided that I knew woefully little about the man himself. Multiple times I picked up the book and abandoned it, due to the author's dense writing style (which I see mentioned by many other reviewers).

In all, I'm glad I returned to the book - the book clarified a lot of the Civil Rights era timeline for me and gave me a clearer picture of how MLK's role evolved. And I certainly learned about his personal character that I didn't know. Heroes are complicated people.

Frady's writing style is intimidating, and there were many times that I had to re-read a sentence for clarity. Frady also cites numerous other MLK biographies, which made me curious about how, particularly, this one differs and adds to his (his)story?

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific portrait of MLK by someone who greatly admires him but who is not afraid to discuss the contradictions in King’s character. As Hamlet says of his father, "He was a man, Horatio, take him for all in all." A great man's feet of clay is a theme of the book and one that Frady treats with honesty and grace. It’s deceptively little: you might think you can polish it off in an afternoon, but the depth of analysis and perfectly-pitched sentences will slow you down--and I mean this as a compliment. Frady’s level of diction rivals that of Wiliam F. Buckley and many paragraphs end in mic-drops. It’s a book that is moving and sobering; Frady's intelligence and depth of feeling are on every page.

[MG · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t imagine a better short biography. Frady’s elevated prose and keen insight puts flesh and blood on a figure often seen as pure icon. What is most impressive is that somehow we are confronted with King’s very human weaknesses—his narcissism and philandering—while also gaining a deep appreciation for why we should count him as one of our heroes and prophets. I did not realize how few of his campaigns resulted in successes or how much constant was the flow of criticism he received from allies in the civil-rights struggle. He carried a heavy burden. Frady also captures how King’s work was always under the shadow of death, a premonition that he would be killed for his cause. This is a wonderful and masterful introduction to King’s life and legacy.